Rollerskates, rollerblades, skateboards, rollerskis and the like, as means for riding on even terrain such as a road surface have been widely known and used for some time. Skateboards, in particular, have become widely developed and generally comprise a platform large enough for a person to stand on with his or her feet side by side, and a front wheel and a rear wheel mounted for rotation about spaced parallel axes, the wheels being of rounded profile to enable the platform to tilt laterally in use. It is generally intended that the user should stand on the platform with his or her feet on either side of an imaginary line joining the centers of the wheels and should balance himself or herself as the skateboard moves forward.
Such structure, for example, is exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,598, issued Nov. 1, 1966 to Goodwin, setting forth a landskier having specially shaped rollers, a plurality of which are mounted between frame members that are in horizontal as well as angular planes, and a drag shoe for controlling speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,409 issued Mar. 5, 1974, to Cudmore, discloses a wheel coasting device, in which the turning action is produced by a flexing or pivoting of four integral suspension arms, which flexing occurs as the riding platform tilts in response to the changes in the rider's weight distribution on the adjacent platform areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,838 issued Apr. 24, 1979 to Lappage, sets forth a wheeled carriage whereby the carriage can be used either way up, the platform being above the wheel axis when the carriage is one way up so as to require a high level of skill to maintain the carriage balance, and the platform being below the wheel axis when the carriage is the other way up so as to require a lower level of skill to maintain the carriage balance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,687 issued Jun. 30, 1992, to Hwang, is an example of a rollerski having a board body having two foot holds on both sides of the longitudinal axis throughout, a front roller assembly and a rear roller assembly supported by and disposed under the board body, a brake means, including at least a brake shoe bracket whose end is hingedly mounted at the rear end region of the board body, and at least a spring means interposed between each shoe bracket and the board body. Additional attachments are coupled over the roller assemblies.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,155 issued Nov. 3, 1992, to Barachet, shows a skateboard having a non-steering rear wheel preferably close to the center of the board and the rear of the latter, and the front steering wheel remote from the center and mounted in a fork which can be freely oriented about a pivot axis relative to the front of the board, and arranged in a manner such that the pivot axis meets the ground at a point situated forward of the point of contact of the front wheel with the ground.
Unfortunately, most of these previous arrangements are not easy to manufacture, and fail to provide structures which will enable use for a wide variety of differently skilled users. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved skateboard of the modified type from that shown in the aforementioned prior art, which is effective to provide a variety of inline mounting arrangements which will appeal to a large cross-section of riders. It is also highly desirable that such skateboard have a minimum number of components and be economical.